So Damon left me and I stayed in Paris. If there was ever a city that would be the best place ever to be left alone it would be Paris. Especially when your best friend leaves you his credit card and a note that says to go crazy as a way of making it up to you.

I'd seen how much Damon spend on clothes so I know my shopping spree didn't even put a dent in his finances.

On Damon's end nothing had happened. I knew because he kept texting me how boring watching his brother be boring was.

In the meantime I took in the city. Did all the tourist thing. Visited museums. I tried a different bakery and café every day. I walked… I even started drawing for fun instead of because I was having an episode.

It was a nice quiet morning where I was enjoying a croissant and espresso that I ended up at the Musée d'Orsay. Something about it gave me a weird sense of Deja' vu. It had become one of my favorite places to be in recent weeks. I could sit in front of one of the impressionist paints for hours.

I was sitting in front of Van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhone just taking it in when a very handsome man started saying something to me in French.

"Oh I'm sorry I don't… " I started trying to remember the phrase.

"I was just saying how the colors may be more muted than Van Gogh's starry night but the brush strokes are just as visible." He said.

"Personally I don't think this one gets as much attention as it should. A Starry Night is a master piece in its own right but the muted colors just in this one give it a more realistic approach." I said. "Though I'm sure that wasn't Van Gogh's intention this is one of his later works so the darker tones were probably more a reflection of his mood towards the end."

"He always was a rather melancholy fellow." He said sounding like he was personally familiar with the artist.

"The best artists always are." I said with a smile.

"Where are my manners? Nik Mikaelson." He said offering me his hand.

"Nora Riley." I said shaking it but when I did I got this really weird nagging feeling in the back of my head.

"Pleasure." Nik said with a smirk. "Have you had a chance to look over the Monet exhibit?"

"Briefly but it's always worth a second look." I said walking there with him. Nik was very smart and quick witted. He was an artist himself and when he saw the sketch pad in my purse he insisted I had to visit his studio later on. We sent the rest of the day roaming the museum until late afternoon.

We stopped in front of what Nik said was one of his favorite paintings. It was painted by an unknown artist in the late 1700's.

"What do you think?" Nik said.

"If I tell you, you can't laugh." I said.

"I'd never." He said with a mischievous smirk.

"When I look at this painting it reminds me of this one, I saw it a few months ago at the Hermitage in Nashville." I said and Nik just looked surprised. "I know what you're thinking typical American thinking some randomly curated work of art compares to a French masterpiece."

"I wasn't thinking that at all." Nik said. "In fact I'm pretty sure I know what work it is you're referring to. They're both very similar if it wasn't for a few more refined points and the fact that they were painted almost 150 years apart I would dare say they were painted by the same person."

"If only that were possible." I said mentally telling myself that the chance of that ever happening was if that person was a vampire.

"Stranger things have happened." Nik said as a voice came on the speaker letting everyone know the museum was closing.

'Wow closing time already." I said.

"Time does fly when one is enjoying themselves." Nik said. "Say would you by chance like to accompany me to dinner."

"Is that your way of asking me on a date?" I asked.

"Perhaps." He said with a smile.

"I'd really like that." I said taking his arm and following him out.

My date went on a bit later than expected but I just kept losing track of time with Nik. He was fun, smart, witty. The stories he told about his younger sister and brother cracked me up. Afterwards he walked me to my door. Kissed my cheek and we made plans to grab lunch the following day.

I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Of course that didn't make me any less annoyed when Damon called in the middle of the night.

"It's not her." Damon said.

"Hello to you too." I said groaning as I turned on the lights. "You do realize it's like four in the morning here."

"Nora I saw her." Damon said.

"Katherine?" I asked sitting up.

"No It's not Katherine. Her name's Elena but I swear she's a dead ringer for Katherine." Damon said.

"So I haven't been drawing Katherine this whole time but this girl that looks exactly like her? Are you sure Katherine wasn't just pretending to mess with you?" I asked.

"I saw her, I heard her heart beat and just really make sure I compelled her." Damon said.

"Oh shit." I said. "Did you talk to Stefan about her?"

"No but he knows about her now." Damon said. "That other drawing about the car driving off the bridge? She was in it with her parents. Stefan pulled her out. Parents are dead."

"Poor girl." I said.

"Yeah it sucks. Listen I'm going to hang around here for a bit longer to do some digging." Damon said.

"I can be there by tomorrow night?" I offered.

"No, stay in Paris you're probably safer there." Damon said.

"It thought you said nothing interesting ever happens there?" I retorted.

"Nora just stay put. I'll call if I need you and if you happen to draw anything…" he started.

"I'll send you picture of it and if you change your mind and you want me there for moral support…" I started.

"I'll be fine. Stay out of trouble." He said.

"That's easy considering you're the trouble." I said. "Be careful."

"Call you later." He said before hanging up.

Two Months Later…

A while later ended up being months later. In that time Nik and I had spent a lot more time together. And we got… close.

We had just gotten back from dinner and we were making out on the couch. Originally I was just going to show him some things I had been working on for some of my freelance jobs but one thing led to another and here we were. Just as I was pulling his shirt off my phone started ringing.

"No…" I groaned.

"Ignore it." Nik said kissing my neck.

"It's Damon if I don't answer he's just going to keep calling." I said.

"Damon the ever-elusive roommate." Nik said kissing me. "I'll go get us a drink."

With that he walked over to the kitchen and I sat up.

"Amazing timing as always Damon." I said sarcastically.

"You'll never guess what Stefan's been up to?" Damon said.

"Did he finally give up Thumper and go for Bambi?" I said.

"No he's enrolling in high school." Damon said.

"Seriously? Why?" I said.

"Why do you think? To get close to her, arrange a meet cute." Damon said.

"That's bordering on stalker territory. He must really want her bad to want to go back to high school. I mean who would willingly want to go through that again." I said.

"You didn't like high school?" Damon asked.

"Of course not. I did my time and got out of there as fast as I could." I said.

"Nora love, where your bottle opener?" Nik called out.

"Top left drawer." I called out.

"Who was that?" Damon asked. Stupid Vampire hearing.

"Oh yeah my friend Nik came over." I said.

"Friend?" Damon said surprised.

"Yes we had dinner and I was showing him some of my work before you interrupted." I said pointedly hoping he'd get the hint.

"You invited him over to work?" Damon said obviously not buying it.

"And you interrupted." I repeated.

"Oh!" he said. "I'm gone five minutes…"

"Two months." I corrected.

"And now you have a boyfriend." Damon said. "Nicely done Riley."

"Shut it Salvatore. Have you talked to your brother yet?" I said.

"You know I was going to but I decided to crash a stoner bonfire in the woods last night and this college coed invited me back to her place…" he started.

"Stop cockblocking me and go talk to your brother." I said.

"Use protection." Damon said.

"Damon!" I whisper shouted before he hung up on me.

"Everything alright love?" Nik asked handing me a glass of wine.

"Oh yeah. Damon's just filling me in on his family drama. His brother's going back to high school to get his GED." I said.

"Ah family squabbles." Nik said. "You know I had a mate once back when I was living in Chicago called who's last name was Salvatore."

"It is a pretty common Italian last name." I said.

"True." Nik said before kissing me. "Now where were we."

I kissed him and straddled his lap and before I knew it Nik picked me up like a weighed nothing and carried me to bed.

I woke up the next morning alone in bed but there was noise coming from the kitchen. I grabbed the shirt Nik had let lying around and slipped it on before going to make sure he didn't burn the apartment down.

"You're handsome, you're smart, you're an amazing artist and you can cook. Is there anything you can't do?" I asked

"Mhm none that I can think of." He said. "Plates?"

"Cupboard next to the fridge." I said as he grabbed them and started plating. I cleared the table when I noticed my sketchbook was open. Not my sketchbook where I doodled or drew for fun. No it was the one where all my drawings from my vision episodes were in.

"Oh sorry. My curiosity got the best of me." Nik said. "They're interesting."

"Yeah, I did them as a favor for a friend. He's a comic book writer. Creative guy but can barely draw stick figures." I said.

"Well he picked the right person for the job." Nik said. "You know that looks a lot like my mate from Chicago?"

"Really? That's funny I got the idea while I was watching some soap opera on TV. Same with the girl." I said trying to brush it off.

"Well most artists I know paint what they know especially faces." Nik said.

"I know my TV." I said.

"Nora love…." Nik said suddenly appearing in front of me at vampire speed and forcing me to look him in the eyes "I think we've grown close enough you can stop lying and just be honest with me. Now tell me where is Katerina?"

"I don't know." I answered not being able to stop myself.

"Where did you last see her?" Nik said.

"I've never met her before." I said.

"What do you mean you've never met her?!" Nik shouted.

"I've never met her I just drew her." I said answering without realizing it.

"You're not making any sense Nora and I'm starting to lose my patience." Nik said as his grip on me tightened. "How did you know to draw her?"

"I just do I'm an oracle." I said.

"An oracle?" He said not buying it. "Tell me everything now."

So I did. I just stood there and blabbed about everything and I couldn't move or stop myself. I couldn't stop talking until I said it all.

"You're just full of surprises aren't you?" Nik said gently brushing a finger on my cheek as I flinched. "Oh none of that. You have no reason to be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you love, in fact you're not going to remember any of this unless I specifically ask you about your abilities and you're not going to tell your friend Damon about this either. We're just going to keep being the same good friends we've always been."

"We're friends." I repeated before suddenly everything just blurred away.

"Nora did you hear me?" Nik said.

"Sorry what?" I asked.

"I asked if you wanted some coffee with your omelet?" Nik said with a smile.

"Oh yeah. You know I don't function without coffee." I said.

"Of course." He said before I finished clearing the table. "How could I forget?"

He placed the coffee in front of me giving me a quick kiss before going to finish up breakfast.

It was around the end of August when my best friend finally came back.

"Damon!" I said tackling him into a hug.

"Miss me?" He said hugging me back just as enthusiastically.

"Do you even have to ask?" I said letting him go.

"I don't know you've been pretty distracted the last couple of times I called." He said. "Speaking of when do I get to meet this guy?"

"Oh yeah that might be kind of hard. He's has an art show in Milan and is going to be gone for a while." I said.

"Aww I was looking forward to meeting him." Damon said not sounding the least bit disappointed.

"No you weren't." I said.

"No but I was going to enjoy scaring the crap out of him." Damon said.

"Aw I've really missed you." I said. "So catch me up. What have I missed?"

"Stefan's going to high school, Elena is related to Katherine. She's adopted and doesn't even know. Mommy and daddy dearest didn't tell her before they kicked the bucket." Damon said and I gave him a look. "May they rest in peace."

"And what does Stefan have to say about it?" I asked.

"No idea I haven't talked to him." Damon said.

"You've been in Mystic Falls for 3 months." I said.

"You say that like it's supposed to matter but it doesn't." he said. "And Stefan could have just as easily gone to find me after he found Elena but he didn't."

I was going to say something but he did have a point there.

"Alright I'll give you that. So Elena's not Katherine but she's still showing up in the drawings which by the way she's almost as boring as Stefan. Seriously they both just sit around and write in their diaries. I get bored just drawing them." I said.

"Another reason I didn't tell Stefan I was in town." Damon said.

"Okay so what now?" I asked.

"Now I take my girl out for some much-needed fun." He said.

"Your girl?" I asked amused.

"I've spent too much time around drunk teenagers lately." Damon said. "But for now I think it's time we go back home but not before one last epic night out in Paris."

"Sweet." I said.

One last epic night out and we were back in New York. Well I was. Damon decided that he was going to go back to Mystic Falls to keep his promise to make his brother's life miserable.

"Okay can we just go over this one more time because I still don't see why I can't go with you?" I said. "I mean I can work from anywhere."

"You're safer here." He said.

"Damon." I said.

"Nora." He said glaring at me to shut it but I wasn't backing down. "Am I going to have to compel you?"

"I drink vervain every morning." I said.

"No, you don't." Damon said.

"I don't because it's almost impossible to get here but you're not going to do it because you don't compel your best friend." I said. "Talk to me. No bullshit this time."

"You know the stuff I do that you don't like that I keep you away from? I'm going to have to do a lot of that because that's just what happens when I'm near Stefan." He said.

"Yeah I still see those things and even if I don't like it I trust that you have a really good reason for doing them." I said.

"Nora I just need to do this part by myself okay? Because if I cross a line and I always do I don't want you caught in the middle." He said. "It's just until I get settled."

"Promise?" I said holding out my pinky.

"A pinky swear really?" Damon said.

"Don't mock the pinky." I said insisting.

"I promise once I have everything handled you can come visit." He said.

"A visit?" I asked. "You know that's not how it works. Buddy system all the way."

"You're going to get bored. I'm bored just thinking about going back." Damon said.

"Yet another reason to take your bestie with you." I said.

"Nice try Nora." Damon said. "Keep your phone on you. I'll check in on you later."

"Same. Don't cause too much trouble." I warned him.

"Where's the fun in that?" he said before walking out of the apartment.